The World's Oldest "Living Fossil" Is Shaking Up Conventional Evolutionary Theories

Scitech Daily ^ | September 12, 2024 | Flinders University

[Islander7]

Smells like fish, tastes like chicken.

[telescope115]

When I was in grade school I read a book thru the school book club about the 1938 realization by scientists that these fish were still living. It was an exciting account that fueled my interest in dinosaurs.

A fascinating fish. A junk fish as far as being a food source goes.

[EinNYC]

I SAW a coelecanth. It was at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. I had taken my biology class to the museum with a custom-made scavenger hunt to find the exhibits and fill out the questions, when a museum administrator asked me if I’d like to see a coelacanth. I knew what they were, and was excited to say “Yes”. It was a large grey fish, now swimming in preservative instead of the ocean. Very cool to see it.

[telescope115]

Wow! 😀

[Berosus]

“Over the past 410 million years, more than more than 175 species of coelacanths have been discovered across the globe.”

This article, like so many others I have seen lately, is badly written. Is the author suggesting that people were around in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, to observe the first coelacanths?

[AndyTheBear]

Over the past 410 million years, more than more than 175 species of coelacanths have been discovered across the globe

How many of that 175 were discovered in the first 409 million years? I betting zero....

[Kleon]

“Shake up,” sure. Human footprints next to dino fossils have already completely demolished these “theories.”

[mass55th]

I’ve always wondered since the Coelacanth survived, why couldn’t other species.

[mass55th]

"Oh, I thought this was about Joe Biden."

I thought it was about Helen Thomas, but then remembered she's been extinct for a while now.

[central_va]

Helen thought coelacanth were delicious.

[mass55th]

"They ignore the most important question: Are they tasty?"

I bought and read the book: "A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth" by Samantha Weinberg. The natives allegedly did eat it when they found it in their nets, but it wasn't that good...very greasy. After the Coelacanth was discovered alive, word spread that money was being offered to people who found them, so that ended their place on the menu.

According to a Coelacanth website: "They don't taste good. People, and most likely other fish-eating animals, don't eat coelacanths because their flesh has high amounts of oil, urea, wax esters, and other compounds that give them a foul flavor and can cause sickness. They're also slimy; not only do their scales ooze mucus, but their bodies exude large quantities of oil."

[mass55th]

"It was a large grey fish, now swimming in preservative instead of the ocean. "

They have never been able to keep one alive for long after being brought up in a net, and kept for study.

[Moltke]

...but their bodies exude large quantities of oil.

Woohoo! Start drilling for those babies!

[SunkenCiv]

;^)

[SunkenCiv]

There are no such human footprints next to dino fossils.

[SunkenCiv]

Technically it has been over the past 410 million years, since 1938 is well within that time. /rimshot

[Kleon]

I meant dino footprints. Those exist because I have seen it. It is an Acrocanthosaurus footprint.

[BlueLancer]

I ordered this book through SRA when I was in elementary school in the mid-60's. It was one of the first books that I ever personally owned (and I still have its zombie-fied tattered remains on my bookshelf after 60+ years) and I was completely fascinated by it at the time.

[SunkenCiv]

There are no human footprints next to dino footprints.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrocanthosaurus#Paleoecology

[SunkenCiv]

Those student book programs were great!